Dec. 01: Zito making the rounds

Barry Zito is starting to make the rounds. He’s already visited with Texas, and agent Scott Boras is sure to meet with Mets GM Omar Minaya at the winter meeting next week in Orlando. Boras is seeking six years for the lefty, and at roughly $12 million a season that comes out to $72 million for the package. That’s only a conservative estimate.

Zito has been an innings eater, which is what Boras is pushing, but that also means eventually there will be a ceiling. Six years is a huge commitment for any player, let alone a pitcher. Assuming the Mets re-sign Tom Glavine, should the Mets go after Zito, or should they look at trade options, or go from within?

16 Comments

I think the Mets should definitely get serious for Zito whether they sign Glavine or not, but only sign him if they (or somebody else) somehow manage to drive the market down. If the price is $100m, no thanks.

Everyone seems to expect that the price of making the kind of pitching trade the Mets probably want to make will be exorbitantly (perhaps prohibitively) expensive. It might be, but I think that the state of the market and individual values are probably in a degree of flux right now (especially with the Matsusake talks moving along slowly); I think whatever goes down at next week’s meetings will go a long way towards determining what kind of trade market will exist for the rest of the winter. The conditions may yet turn out to be right for Omar to swing a deal that makes sense.

As for what the Mets have in-house, I really, really like the four young power pitchers they seem to have. I like Humber a lot, and think that if he somehow makes it out of camp next year with the big league team, he could be a ROY candidate.

I don’t like Pelfrey as much; I think he might have to ascend up a Reyes-like learning curve before he becomes what everyone thinks he will be.

Maine and Perez I like; I think Maine is a safe bet for the rotation, and we’ll see if the change of scenery and the nine months or so in the Mets organization (and with Peterson) will have paid off for Perez come February/March.

Whatever happens, having four young major-league ready power arms is a pleasant problem to have if you’re the Mets. I hope they don’t get cold feet and trade some of it away for mediocre “proven” major league talent (like the old Mets would have done). The Mets are long overdue to develop some stud starters, but they sort of have to look into the abyss and go into spring training with some degree of rotation uncertainty before they can end their drought.

I don’t think they have much of a choice, especially considering the current trade market. The Mets cannot assemble a high-priced cast of veteran players—like Delgado, Beltran, Alou, Wagner—only to go cheap on their rotation. While there’s certainly a bright young core being built around Reyes and Wright, they need to do what it takes to move this team one more rung up the ladder in 2007.

Zito is only going to cost them money. And they seem to have plenty of that these days.

Sign Zito at a reasonable cost. Omar should stand firm… who else can afford what Boras is asking for?

The free agent market for pitchers is extremely thin and the Mets don’t have much to trade and get fair value. I wouldn’t have too much problem going forward with our young pitchers. After all, they have to learn the big leagues sometime and that is why you have someone like Peterson. I like homegrown talent.

A high powered offense and a strong bullpen can compensate for some shaky or unproven starters. This past season proved that.

As I respond to you, Glavine is a done deal. They’ll still talk to Zito, but there’s far less sense of urgency, which works in the Mets’ favor because they won’t overpay. As of now, the Yankees aren’t in the Zito market, but that could change. The Rangers will make a big push because that division is very winnable with a solid pitcher.

Maine will be in the rotation, but I don’t think you’ll see Humber next year. Pelfrey? Perhaps. As of now, I have Glavine, Hernandez, Maine, Perez and Bannister in the rotation.

As I said, I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency to get Zito now that they’ve re-signed Glavine. But, you are right. This is a team built to win now. Sure, Wright, Reyes and Beltran are young and will be around for a long time.

You can’t spend $120 million assembling a cast of veteran players and then let another $5 million get in the way of actually accomplishing your goal of winning the WS. If they don’t overpay for Zito, they’ll likely have to overpay for someone else, no?

that’s why i thought letting bradford go because of $3.5m for the third year seemed strange. it’s “only” money (and not much of it), and he was a key player in that bullpen. kept the ball in the park, left inherited runners on base-who’s going to fill that role now? hopefully sanchez is back at full strength, but i was surprised they let chad leave.